Study the... PETATE

Every Aztec person slept on a petate! It was one of the few basic items to be found in every single Aztec home, rich or poor. Yet it was far more important than just a simple bed: read on... (Written/compiled by Ian Mursell/Mexicolore)

Pic 1: Petates are still hugely popular today in the Mexican countryside, though usually raised up on a frame - to avoid any scorpions! (Click on image to enlarge)

In Náhuatl it was called a petlatl; this word has changed slightly - to ‘petate’- and become part of every-day Mexican Spanish. Petates are still widely found today throughout the countryside in Mexico: used not just for beds but also as mats to lay out produce to sell in the market (as in Aztec times). You can imagine, they’re also great today to take to the beach or hills for a picnic...!

Pic 2: SPOT THE PETATE in this museum model of the inside of an Aztec house! (Click on image to enlarge)

The petate was so much a part of Aztec life that it appears in several codices. In Picture 3 you can see a couple getting married, sitting symbolically on a petate. The marriage is shown by the tying of the two tunics together. The old folk round about them are giving them plenty of advice for the future... Most Aztec people used the petate as a bed at night and as a seat during the day (set on a low platform made of earth, or occasionally of wood). A family’s clothes and few valuables were kept in a wickerwork chest called petlacalli (literally, a ‘mat house’). The modern Mexican Spanish word ‘petaca’ comes from this.

Pic 3: Marriage, the couple sitting on a petate. Codex Mendoza (Click on image to enlarge)

In Picture 4 you can see the emperor Moctezuma II in his palace in Tenochtitlan, sitting on a petate. He also used a chair similar to a modern seat, called icpalli - more about this in our ‘Study the ICPALLI’ page...

Pic 4: Moctezuma sitting on a petate in his palace. Codex Mendoza (Click on image to enlarge)

There were whole neighbourhoods in Tenochtitlan that specialised in making petates, out of common reed from the lakeside. Fine ones could include lengths of reed coloured with natural dyes mixed in with the plain ones to create lovely patterns. See one in our mini-feature ‘A people’s bed’ (follow link below).

The Aztecs used elegant, flowery speech, full of metaphors, very often with two words or phrases combining to form a single idea. A good example involves the humble petate: ‘mat, seat’ meant throne, as did ‘Eagle Mat, Jaguar Mat’. Eagle and Jaguar Knights were two of the highest ranks in the army, and the Florentine Codex refers to the privilege enjoyed by ‘those who took four captives [in war]... from then on they could sit on the mats they used and icpalli [seats] in the hall where the other captains and valiant men sat.’ So Ocelopetlatl, Cuauhpetlatl - literally ‘The jaguar mat, the eagle mat’ meant throne or what we nowadays would call ‘seat of power’.

The game of patolli, Codex Magliabecchiano, p. 60 (Click on image to enlarge)

The Aztecs enjoyed playing a board game called patolli, using beans as counters. The game was played on a roll-out petate mat that could be carried around everywhere. The game was highly popular, and bets were regularly placed on the outcome - the Aztecs seem to have been particularly keen on gambling and betting, partly perhaps because they were highly superstitious, and linked good and bad luck closely to the signs and numbers in their ritual calendar.

Confirming its life-long importance to the Aztecs, the petate was pressed into service from the cradle to the grave: the midwife placed the new-born babe carefully on the mat before taking it to be ritually washed - and, at the other end of life, the dead body of an Aztec was placed, with gifts, rolled in the position of a foetus, in a petate, to be buried or cremated as a death bundle, often under the house where he or she had lived.

Download our Activity Sheet on the Petate...

3 At 2.08pm on Sunday August 3 2014, Veronica wrote:

Where can I buy a petate online?

Mexicolore replies: Nowhere that we know of, I’m afraid. Let us know if you find a source!

2 At 4.04pm on Wednesday January 13 2010, tecpaocelotl wrote:

I’ve seen a lot of southern places do that with petates; where my mom is from, they still have it on the floor, but they’re mostly being replaced by beds. Anyway, do they set it up like that because of scorpions? That’s the reason why no one really use petates any more.

Mexicolore replies: That explains it!

1 At 4.49pm on Monday June 15 2009, Tecpaocelotl wrote:

I see you have no real images of a petate:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v258/tecpaocelotl/37431c1f.jpg

Mexicolore replies: Thanks, Tecpa! In fact there is a real one in the first photo on this page (inside the farmer’s house), but your photo is much better...